Bobby Franklin’s Georgia Journal: Human In The Test Tube But Not When You Are Implanted
Last week was another sad week under the Gold Dome for those who love liberty.
REP. BOBBY FRANKLINThe House enacted the “Georgia Prescription Monitoring Program Act”, HB 455, which has the state maintain a data base of all of your prescription drugs and how many you take. During the debate almost every tale of terrors was told except that the bill was needed to save the children. They didn’t need to play the “for the children” card as HB 455 passed the House with a vote of 149-8.
HB 649 created the “Agricultural Commodity Commission for Blueberries.” Aside from there being no legitimate role of the civil government in agriculture, other than to insure just weights and measures, just what is an agricultural commodity commission? Well, it is a state approved cartel of farmers who set high “dues” to be a member thus forcing out competition from smaller growers. They then are able to set artificially high prices for the “sanctioned and approved” commodity. During the debate an amendment was offered to sunset the roughly 12 agricultural commodity commissions sometime in the year 2011. The amendment looked like it was going to pass until 2 leading republicans spoke against the amendment. The first was Republican Caucus Chairman, Jay Roberts, who identified himself as one of the state’s largest blueberry growers. The other was Republican Whip, Barry Fleming, who said that since the amendment sunsets the commissions, then the commissions would not have the ability to sunset themselves prior to that date. Incredible! Since when has a government agency, or in this case, a government monopoly ever voted itself out of existence? The sunset amendment failed with a vote of 21-136. HB 649 then passed the House with a vote of 146-10.
HB 887 created the “Tobacco Prevention Master Settlement Agreement Oversight Committee” within the Department of Human Resources. There will be 15 members of this “oversight” committee, 11 of which will be appointed by the executive branch of government. Let’s see, 11 of 15 members are appointed by the executive branch. They are tasked with overseeing the - executive branch. Brilliant. HB 887 passed the House with a vote of 138-13.
GEORGIA RIGHT TO LIFE: A ‘legal person’ until implanted in the uterus - a view that is NOT pro-life.While HB 455 did not play the “for the children” card, HB 984 certainly did. This bill created the definition of “Children’s transition care center” in order to provide yet another means to fund “the children.” HB 984 passed the House with a vote of 148-1.
If that’s not enough state intrusion, HB 1019 enacted the “Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank Act.” So now the state government becomes the main lender to local governments and even potentially driving private lenders out of business. HB 1019 passed the House with a vote of 162-1.
HB 1043 amended an already bad law, the “Childhood Lead Exposure Control Act” by allowing the state to enter your property if some state agent thinks that your kid has been exposed to lead.Whatever happened to the Supreme Court’s “Roe” and “Casey”right to privacy? HB 1043 passed the House with a vote of 123-30.
There were 2 bills even more interesting than these. The first was HB 1000 authored by a vice-chairman of the powerful Appropriations committee. This bill creates yet another tax on boat owners. The interesting part, aside from a Republican leader promoting a tax increase, was that it took a Democrat to expose HB 1000 as a tax increase. Trying to save the tax increase bill, the Republican Speaker Pro Tem made a motion to send the bill back to committee.
The other interesting bill is HB 1358 which was introduced late in the day on Wednesday. I first learned of HB 1358, “The Human Embryo Protection Act”, from an email alert from Georgia Right to Life praising the bill, and of course, providing a link to make a contribution to their organization. So Thursday morning I obtained a copy and was shocked at what the bill actually says. Let me quote from the new code section 19-7-62 which is found on page 2 beginning at line 11 of the bill: “An in vitro human embryo exists as a legal person until such time as the in vitro human embryo is implanted in a human uterus ….” Did you notice what this “pro-life” bill actually says? You are a person while in the test tube. But the state then can deny your personhood the moment you are implanted in a uterus. With so called right to life organizations promoting this type of abomination, no wonder roughly 40,000 babies are still being slaughtered in their mother’s womb’s each year in Georgia.
The duty is ours…
the outcome is God’s